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Roger Atkinson Pryor

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ROGER ATKINSON PRYOR (1828-), American jurist and politician, was born near Petersburg, Virginia, on the 19th of July 1828. He graduated at Hampden-Sidney College in 1845 and at the law school of the university of Virginia in 1848, and in 1849 was admitted to the bar, but devoted himself for some years to journalism. He served as a Democrat in the National House of Representatives from December 18J9 to March 1861, and was re-elected for the succeeding term, but owing to the secession of Virginia did not take his seat. He served in the provisional Contederate congress (1861) and also in the first regular congress (1862) of the Confederate constitution. He entered the Confederate army as a colonel, became a brigadiergeneral (April 16, 1862), and took part in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, second Bull Run and Antietam. Owing to a disagreement with President Davis he resigned his commission in 1863, but entered General Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry as a private in August of that year. He was taken prisoner on the 28th of November 1864, but was released on parole by order of the president. In 1865 he removed to New York City, where he practised law. He was judge of the New York court of common pleas in 1890-1894, and of the New York supreme court in 18 941899. His wife, Sara Agnes (Rice) Pryor (b. 1830), published The Mother of Washington and her Times (1903), Reminiscences of Peace and War (1904), The Birth of the Nation (1907), and My Day: Reminiscences of a Long Life (1909).